More transparency in real estate buying
The credit ratings agency CRISIL recently launched real estate ratings in India, which would help common buyers make informed purchases and is expected to bring in more transparency in real estate buying the system will work on a project-specific cialis how it works basis and rate it on a on a scale of one to seven stars after comparing with other alternatives available in the same city….. Read More.
Explaining the mechanism CRISIL’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Roopa Kudva said: “A developer commissions the agency and gives us access to various details needed for assessment. We take into account our parameters and rate the project. Once the developer accepts the rating, we go public with the rating and project analysis which will be given to common buyers for free.” The parameters include the past record of the developer, the infrastructure he is erecting, finishing, timely completion, cost overruns, after-sales service, legal issues like title and project innovations such as green buildings. The rating will be given mid-way through the project and will be under surveillance till project completion, during which it can be revised. In fact many rating agencies are coming up with real estate rating systems. On the international level Fitch has been rating real estate projects for quite some years. Speaking about the need for such ratings and their viability, Samujjwal Ghosh, Senior General Manager, Marketing, Lodha Developers says, “I believe that an all-round assessment of real estate projects will help buyers benchmark and identify quality projects within a city. Such ratings should ideally provide a comprehensive evaluation of all project specific risks which could impact the quality of the project. Such ratings, if done with thoroughness, definitely discount cialis bring greater transparency in the system enabling the consumer to take a more informed decision. It also works in favour of the developers who focus on quality and gives them an opportunity to be seen in a differentiated light. At an independent level, consumers face paucity of adequate information when acquiring property and such objective ratings does definitely make life easier for the consumer.”
Ashok Kumar, MD and Principal Partner, Cresa Partners, an international property consultant company also thinks it is a very good idea and a positive move towards bringing professionalism in real estate.“ In fact I remember CRISIL starting this almost ten years back. But it was not as successful then as I guess the industry was not mature enough to actually aspire for professionalism and global recognition. Now things are different and developers are going abroad and picking up projects elsewhere in the world too. In that case they would actually welcome it,” he says, adding, “All over the world we do have a third party rating system and many years back Citi Bank had developed an elaborate rating system, which was very comprehensive. The government too is to come up with a regulatory body and all these would be good for the health of the industry.” However, Kaizad Hateria, GM-Sales and Customer Relations, Rustomjee, is a little doubtful about the viability of such a product. He asks, “Do they have the expertise in real estate? How scientifically evolved are their systems, what kind of research are they doing? It needs a whole department of experts, are they employing them? How authentic are their methods? How are they going to assess the risk factors? How are they going to keep track of the projects? How will they foresee the shortage of cement, steel and other material?” Gulam Zia, National Director, Research & Advisory Services, Knight Frank India, also expresses his doubt as he feels that rating a product in a white goods category like a car or financial instruments, is easier, as there are some standard parameters and the expectations are more or less uniform. However in the case of real estate, every project is unique and no two products can fall into a single category. This would colour the objectivity aspect.” Playing a devil’s advocate, one would wonder if these ratings could be fudged using muscle power. ”In another case a developer may go for it in case he has too many foreign investors who want the project rated. Since most rating agencies are now global agencies, there must be reasons for the investors to insist on ratings done by them. Most agree that this may a good starting point in the effort to bring in transparency.
Source: Economic Times
India Aims to Triple Port Capacity
India, Asia’s third-biggest economy, plans to triple port capacity within a decade, as it tackles infrastructure deficiencies that threaten to slow growth. The country needs “urgent action” to ensure that it has sufficient seaport capacity, Secretary of Shipping K. Mohandas said. “Ports are very important to India’s economic growth.”….. Read More.
The government intends to open new harbors and sell stakes in ports to help annual capacity reach 3.2 billion tons under a 10-year plan that will be released next month, Mohandas said. The nation is also building highways, railways and airports to ease transport bottlenecks that could cost 1.1 percentage points of growth in fiscal 2017, according to McKinsey & Co. Indian ports will likely handle more than 2.5 billion tons of cargo a year by 2020, Mohandas said. Throughput in the year ended cialis online no prescription March rose 14 percent to 844.9 million tons. Nationwide capacity is about 996 million tons, said Rakesh Srivastava, joint secretary for ports at the shipping ministry.
The government also intends to award concessions for two new terminals at Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port this fiscal year, including one for a facility able to cialis generic vs brand handle more shipments than the harbor’s three existing terminals, Mohandas said. The state-controlled operator of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s busiest container harbor, will likely be turned into a corporation by the end of March, paving the way for an eventual share sale, Mohandas said.“Jawaharlal Nehru Port is the first possible candidate for corporatization,” he said. “A final decision has not been taken but hopefully it will happen this year.”Mohandas declined to comment on what size stake the government may sell in the port operator and on when a sale could happen. Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Dubai-based DP World Ltd., and an AP Moeller-Maersk A/S-Container Corp. of India Ltd. venture currently run terminals at the port.
Source: Bloom Berg
The Real Estate Act
The real estate sector is showing signs of revival, however they have to be prepare themselves for the new Real Estate (Regulation of Development ) Act drafted by the Centre….. Read More.
The act proposes the setting up of a regulatory authority and an appellate tribunal to regulate, control and promote planned development, construction, sale, transfer and management of colonies, residential buildings, apartments and so on. The authority will maintain a website with all project details to safeguard public interest. The model law also aims to check flyby-night operators. Among the crucial provisions is the proposal to have compulsory registration of projects. The idea is to non prescription cialis safeguard the rights and interests of the buyers and prevent losses to the government.
“New law will stifle realty sector.” says Santosh Rungta, the president of Confederation usa cialis of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (Credai), an apex body of organized realty developers and builders. Acording to him, obtaining multiple clearances from local authorities to complete a certain project will lead to operational delays and non-compliance by civic authorities. The industry also needs more workforce to meet the growing demand for housing. But the sector is now facing a shortage of construction workers.
Source:Economic Times
Karnataka’s Power sector needs Rs 5 lakh crore
Investment in the power sector to the tune of nearly Rs 5 lakh crore is needed in the state of Karnataka to take the per capita consumption of power to 1,000 units. Nearly 40% of power generated in the state is used by the agriculture sector, which is not a paying consumer…..Read More.
The state attracted expressions of interest for investment in power sector to the tune of Rs 70,000 crore at the recently concluded Global Investors Meet in Mangalore. The expressions of interest have come in the area of gas, coal and renewable sources of energy. Energy is the prime mover of growth and it is imperative to enhance availability of energy rapidly.
The developing countries even in 2030 are unlikely to meet levels of per capita energy consumed by the developed countries in 1971 and are perennially energy deficit states. There is a need to increase primary energy supply three to four cialis medicine times and energy production six times if India has to attain some respectability in its power needs. This will be quite a challenge given that 550 million Indians still do not have access to electricity and biomass rimonabant prices is the only source of energy for 700 million households.
Source : Times of India
Infosys says BPO services could overtake IT revenue: The firm is betting big on bundling outsourcing services and technology sol
The backoffice arm of the country’s second largest software firm, Infosys Technologies Ltd, could potentially overtake information technology (IT) services in overall revenue, said chief executive S. GopalakrishnanInfosys BPO currently contributes to around 5% of the firm’s total revenue.
The BPO (business process outsourcing) can grow even bigger than IT services because that addresses something like 15-20% of spend for our client organization, whereas IT typically addresses 2-5% of expenditure buy cialis brand for our clients .
Infosys BPO is aiming to quadruple its revenue to $1 billion (Rs4,730 crore) in three years, riding a rebound in demand for outsourcing. For the financial year 2009-10, Infosys BPO reported a revenue of Rs1,127 crore while Infosys Technologies’ turnover was Rs22,742 crore.
Over the past year, the company has signed deals worth a combined $65 million by bundling technology services with BPO. Around 60% of the total 92 clients of Infosys BPO are also customers of Infosys Technologies and we expect the number to increase.
Attrition, though, remains a concern. Infosys BPO’s attrition touched 35% for the quarter ended June. Infosys Technologies recently increased its hiring target for the full-year from 30,000 to 36,000. Of this, 10,000 will be hired by the BPO arm.
While Infosys BPO continue to target verticals such as finance and accounting acomplia testimonials and human resource outsourcing– low-hanging fruits for the industry–Idnani said there is a new focus around areas such as warranty support and digital commerce. Around 50% of the company’s deal pipeline still comprises of finance and accounting-related contracts.
Source:[Trading Market]
Infrastructure problems reflect a bad state of affairs and Commonweath Games coming closer!
The CommonWealth acomplia sales Games, held every four years and grouping athletes from the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations, are intended to be India’s answer to the Beijing 2008 Olympics, hailed as a success for its economic and political rival China. But while China set out to wow the world with iconic structures such as the Bird’s Nest stadium, many Commonwealth Games venues in New Delhi are far from finished while others are falling apart under the force of a few weeks of monsoon rains. From half constructed shooting range to false ceilings gone awry, it’s a pitiful state, rains cialis 40 mg only adding to the existing woes.
Analysts say one of the main problems is a government practice of awarding contracts, regardless of their size, to the lowest bidders, which are often smaller, more aggressive, but less experienced construction firms which also lack the manpower needed to implement such projects. Contractors also sometimes take short-cuts when they’re running over budget or running out of time often translating into sub-standard structures.
Not with standing the oft-cited difficulties of getting land and necessary bureaucratic clearances are solved.
Source:[Economic times]
Infrastructure for futuristic India calling for better investors and investments
The creation of world-class infrastructure calls for huge investments. This, in turn, calls for the right kind of policies as well as fiscal environment to attract the investments.
Particularly, commercial banks, which play a prominent role in debt investments while specialised institutions have a negligible role. The Union Governments announcement regarding the policy decision to promote the PPP route for infrastructure projects although PPP projects do not offer the lender any traditional form of security, such as mortgage of assets, as financing is expected to be secured by future cash-flows.
Commercial banks, which follow a traditional financial structure, have so far been oblivious to the need for amending many of the old prudential norms. Industry players, both in the private sector as well as government agencies such as the National Highways Authority of India, have been representing to the Ministry of Finance and the RBI for relaxation of certain norms. Recently, the BKC Committee set up to look into the financing constraints of the road sector too deliberated on some of these issues.
Policy relief
The RBI annual policy for FY2010-11 announced a few months ago provided some happiness to both the private sector and commercial banks. Specifically, since it will allow banks to classify investments in non-SLR bonds issued by companies engaged in infrastructure activities and having a minimum residual maturity of seven years under the held to maturity (HTM) category.
It treats annuities under acomplia tablets the build-operate-transfer cialis generic vs brand (BOT) model in respect of road/ highway projects and toll collection rights, where there are provisions to compensate the project sponsor if a certain level of traffic is not achieved, as tangible securities subject to the condition that banks’ right to receive annuities and toll collection rights is legally enforceable and irrevocable. Infrastructure loan accounts classified as sub-standard will attract a provisioning of 15 per cent instead of the currently prescribed 20 per cent.
Funding cost
These announcements will not only create additional liquidity in the market, but also bring down the overall cost of funding.
While all the infrastructure sectors will benefit from this announcement, the road sector will be the biggest beneficiary. Banks will now treat toll rights/ annuities as tangible assets and, thereby, loans provided to road PPPs will be treated as secured. This will improve liquidity and bring down interest rates. It will further improve leverage and loan tenure. Banks will also benefit with lesser provisioning, both due to better classification of assets and reduced requirement of provisioning to sub-standard assets in the infrastructure sector. The revised guidelines for valuation of infrastructure bond will make the bonds issued by road companies attractive.
Source:[The Hindu Businessline]
Tax-Free Bonds for Infrastructure
The Government of India aims to spend $500 billion on infrastructure in the five years to end-March 2012 but is already behind schedule. In order to shore up investment in this crumbling sector, the Finance ministry decided to issue tax-free infrastructure bonds with a minimum tenure of 10 years.
The bonds have the potential to raise about $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2010/11, according to government estimates, and the number could rise in 2011/12. The bonds will likely make investments to build roads, ports and power plants more attractive to banks that have so far struggled to finance long-term projects with short-term funds. It will also deepen the domestic bond market. The Finance Ministry said in a statement that the bonds will be issued by Industrial Finance Corporation of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited, and non-banking infrastructure finance companies, approved by the central bank.
“It would help the government in a big way to raise funds for the infrastructure sector, but it needs to come up with more acomplia in usa innovative measures to meet the funding needs of that sector,” said N.R. Bhanumurthy, an economist at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, a Delhi based think-tank. India, the world’s second most populated nation and third largest economy of Asia, has consistently fallen short of building infrastructure it has planned for and this has prevented achieving a growth pace similar to China’s double-digit expansion. A plan for India’s biggest infrastructure debt fund, worth $11 billion, aims to make the sector more attractive by allowing local banks to fund projects at low rates until they start seeing revenue. Half of the money could be raised from overseas investors, tapping sovereign and cialis online overnight insurance funds, the government has said.
Source: [IB Times]